Afghanistan accuses Uzbekistan of violating Hairatan port deal

Officials of the Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA) accuse Uzbekistan Railways of violating the new agreement regarding the technical affairs of the rail link between Hairatan and Mazar-e-Sharif.

ARA’s head Bakht-ur-Rahman Sharaft, in an interview with Ariana News, said that Uzbekistan Railways had agreed that 16 Uzbeks be employed for the management of the rail link, but now it is insisting on employing 65 people.

He said that based on the agreement, Uzbekistan should have handed over the technical affairs to a Kazakh company on February 1, however,, Uzbekistan Railways suspended international freight shipment via Hairatan port.

“The only problem is that we had agreed on 16 technical employees, but they have sent a one-sided contract that mentions 65 employees instead of 16 employees, and the salary of each one is 6,000 dollars. This is a huge amount of money and we cannot afford it,” Sharafat said.

The official emphasized that efforts are underway to solve the problem, and a delegation from Afghanistan is ready to travel to Uzbekistan for this purpose.

He also said that efforts are ongoing for the implementation of trans-Afghan railwy project. Although the implementation of this project by foreign engineers is estimated at around 4.8 billion dollars, but the head of the railway administration emphasizes that the project can be implemented at a cost of 2.8 billion dollars.

“We can do anything,” he said. “There is will, there is transparency, there is commitment of leadership.”

Recently, the Afghanistan Railway Administration signed a two-year contract with Kazakhstan on the Haritaan port, according to which Kazakh employees will carry out technical work in this port.

The Hiraitan Railway stretches 75 km from Hiraitan Port to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, through which commercial goods from China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are transported to Afghanistan.